Rickie Lee Jones, c/d?

New album Sermon On Exposition Boulevard is a big mess. She walks in the sandals of Jesus when there was nothing wrong with her boots; she also does this mewling speaking-in-tongues thing on a few songs. Not good. And yet, and yet--the first song, "Nobody Knows My Name" rocks harder than she ever has. Drone-mantra, post VU throw down. We don't need another song about Elvis (the Son of God, of course) and Cadillacs, but this one has a groove that gets her over the silly name dropping (I think it's available for download on her website somewhere). And her voice is really terrific, when she's not mewling, and some of the best tracks just about reach the Vanological gospel trance state she's always loved. I give it a solid B.

I'm really digging 'Magazine' right now.

That album has one of the most wtf reviews on AMG:

The reason The Magazine was such a disappointment was that Rickie Lee Jones had proven herself a major artist with her first two albums and turned into a self-conscious, pretentious, minor one on this, her third. Once, she made art by observing street people and describing them carefully; now she tried to make "Art" by navel-gazing. What a letdown.

"The Magazine" is one of the greatest albums of the 80's..."Deep Space" is just breathtaking

classic

However the AMG review of her last album Sermon on Exposition Boulevard makes it sound amazing. Thom Jurek is so the best "I'll have what he's having" reviewer of AMG. He likes recent Maria McKee too though which makes me inclined to trust him.

So I need to go back and read through whole thread, but I'm really curious: After her debut LP, did Rickie Lee ever do any tracks with anywhere near the bounce, energy, hooks, and humor of "Chuck E.'s In Love" and "Danny's All Star Joint" again? They're far and away the best things on that album (I'd take "Weasel And The White Boys Cool" third, then probably "Easy Money"), most of the rest being dull tasteful ballads (tasteful musically, anyway, even when asking you to stick it into coolsville.) I've never heard Pirates or Magazine, and I'm guessing they'd bore me (like her Girl At Her Volcano covers EP did), but maybe I'm wrong. (Also, if she didn't ever do anything as catchy as "Chuck E.'s" again, I'm wondering if she ever explained why not. Was she just embrassed about having an actual hit?)

Also starting to be convinced, though, that she was probably at least a somewhat relevant influence on Teena Marie's beatnik jive-talk side -- even ballads like "Company" on the debut sound kinda proto-Teena, and the lyric sheet looks a little like It Must Be The Magic's inner sleeve. They both even include photos of themselves as little girls. Teena's debut LP came out in 1979, too, but she didn't really reveal her beatnik side until later. Of course, it's possible they were both just channeling Joni Mitchell in vaugely similar ways.

The timbre of her voice has always bothered me, but if you're looking for settings that complement it check out her Walter Becker collaboration from 1989. It won't convert you -- it reminds me a little of what Joni failed to attempt at the same time -- but it ain't much different than what you're used to from her.

Chuck Pirates is dreamy and jazzy so if you don't like the ballad parts of the debut I wouldn't recommend it as an album, but "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" is an awesome party joint.

"Living It Up" and the title track swing between uptempo and morose with a vertiginous intensity that is pretty rare I think but I'm not sure you'd enjoy that.

there was a bunch of stuff on The Magazine that was hookier than anything really on Pirates - I think "Runaround" and "It Must Be Love" were both on that one, which were both RLJ at her most hummable

also Alfred if "what Joni failed to an attempt" is a Night Ride Home dis, know that I will cut you

"Jukebox Fury" is the most hooky thing on The Magazine I think ("It Must Be Love" is a great great ballad though!) but by that point she'd really shed the whole hepcat vibe which I assume is at least part of what chuck is looking for.

also Alfred if "what Joni failed to an attempt" is a Night Ride Home dis, know that I will cut you

I like that one; it's her other eighties albums that drift.

Thanks, guys. And yeah, I'm pretty convinced that her hepcat side is where her fun is; the amrorphous, theoretically "jazzy" ballads haven't been reaching me at all. But I'll keep the tracks people mentioned in mind should I come across dollar copies of Pirates or The Magazine, even though I still expect I'll find them even more frustrating than the debut. Meanwhile, here's a talk on Frank Kogan's livejournal last year, centered around a '90s track by her than I do like; also curious if she ever did anything else like "White Girl":

http://koganbot.livejournal.com/172216.html

Woah, so weird. Didn't see this thread, but I'm listening to the self-titled right now.

I kind of think that me trying to really interest Xhuxk in RLJ's career is the definition of insanity, but I guess if there is any explanation for why she didn't do a lot of happy songs like chuck e's in love it was the huge writer's block that killed her after Pirates.

I will represent The Magazine forever because it saved my life one summer, and Pirates has at least two songs I cannot listen to because they are too much in my heart. Anyway, there's a lot of great stuff floating around from the rest of her career, as I've been learning by combing dollar bins. Here's a brief alternative Top 10:

"Nobody Knows My Name" (kinda like an alt.dylan version of "white girl" if you stretch your mind)
"Show Biz Kids" (actually the whole "it's like this" cover album is amazing-pants)
"Altar Boy" (about as punk as sinead o'connor)
"Tell Somebody (Repeal the Patriot Act)" (aka "chuck e hates george bush" with gospel seasonings)
"Ghost Train" (beat as fhuxk)
"Wild Girl" (loose, easy folkie pop from last year's balm in gilead)
"Love Is Gonna Bring Us Back Alive" (live at red rocks, barely over her version of "gloria")
"Dat Dere" (oscar brown jr song from pop pop, love the songs where she just sounds happy)
"Lucky Guy" (country weeper, probably written about tom waits' roving ways on the road)
"The Real End" (most underrated jam from 'the magazine')

I will represent The Magazine forever because it saved my life one summer, and Pirates has at least two songs I cannot listen to because they are too much in my heart.

which ones?

yeah "Lucky Guy" is a sleeper on Pirates but the whole album is great. I will also stand up for "Juke Box Fury" on Magazine.

Maybe I am the only person who has heard Traffic From Paradise from 1994? It inexplicably became my very favourite album when it came out (I was 11 at the time) and I still really enjoy it. produced with Leo Kottke.

don't forget -

Rickie lee Jones, S/D?

wow Matt we are kinda identical twins on this question

So -- as Tim F basically predicted -- I've decided I pretty much can't stand Pirates; don't hear at all what others hear. Even the only two cuts with any hint of energy at all -- "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train To Peking" and maybe the title track -- don't come close to the stuff I like on her debut, beatnik scat schtick or no. And the rest, gawd, what a vague, empty snooze of a record. Thing is, I do like her writing in a few songs -- all the very-early -Springsteen type street characters and situations in "We Belong Together," "Living It Up," "Skeletons," "Traces of the Western Slopes" But the only way I know is from the lyric sheet, and given her nodded-out mumbling, which annoys the heck out of me and leaves me cold, I'm not even sure it'd work to read along while listening, which I'm not about to try.

Haven't heard Pirates in a long time, but you know what I really used to like was that covers record, Pop Pop.

she is doing dates performing her first two lp's!

xpActually, even in the songs where I said I liked the lyrics on paper, it's usually only a verse here and there, not entire songs. Basically just impressed when the writing gets specific, even if it's an idea she pretty clearly swiped from elsewhere. And I'd be way more impressed if the music wasn't too quiet and sleepwalked-through to hear the words.

dude, i gotta see this--is she planning on coming to NYC? If she'd throw in Live at the Volcano Live it would be truly perfect

I mean Girl at Her...smoking a bowl on a work night, not a good thing

looks like she is doing westbury and bergen PAC..

too bad...that's what i thought

thanks

Is it obvious to everyone else what "cunt-fingered Louie" means?

Cos I have spent some 10+ years not knowing.

hah. poetic license? that combination of words just sounded good next to one another? or maybe he was some manhattan beach character that her friends knew who...eh

anyway, did anyone see her on that tour last autumn?? i still regret not seeing her. i am a huge fan and she played in town on my effing birthday :(

From Henry Green's Paris Review interview:

I got the idea of Loving from a manservant in the Fire Service during the war. He was serving with me in the ranks, and he told me he had once asked the elderly butler who was over him what the old boy most liked in the world. The reply was: “Lying in bed on a summer morning, with the window open, listening to the church bells, eating buttered toast with cunty fingers.” I saw the book in a flash.

buttered toast, huh?

noted.

*fails to make strategic glazed donut joke*

Rickie Lee Jones albums always sneak up on me... I've been absolutely obsessed with The Magazine of late. So good!

I could not love The Magazine enough. Massive massive hooks, relentless weirdo visions...and it helped me through one of the weirdest summers of my life.

oh crap I already said that upstairs

I always think of you talking about that when I listen to it!

aw

Fine: I'm going to listen to The Magazine.

I find it helps to skip the opening piano instrumental. There's nothing particularly wrong with it but it makes the album appear more reaching and less fun than it is.

I've heard "The Real End" before! Sassy horns.

yeah, jealous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru_7YGRLoG8

Aw crap, she did a free show in Brooklyn on Saturday and I totally missed it. (I was at another show anyway, but still, would've considered going to hers instead.)

Xpost that video of Rickie Lee talking about movies was awesome. Great storytelling chops and humor but I guess that was evident in her songs.

I kinda love that she took The Blob.

No mention of that hefty Fellini box though, which was odd.

The set was mostly from her new album -- "There'll Never Be Another You" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street" were highlights

Happy birthday!

well, I'm ugly too
no, no, no, you're not beautiful
no, you're ugly too
cause you've been traveling in so many universes and you manifest here